Central Europe · Volume 38, The Pepper That Came Late, the Herdsman's Pot and the Coffeehouse
Lángos
The bread oven of the whole country, and the Balaton's stand
Illustration
- Time
- 2 hours
A flat bread of potato dough, fried deep and eaten with sour cream and garlic. It was once baked at the mouth of the wood oven beside the loaf and named for the flame; frying is the later habit, and the resort stand came with the leisure era. The potato dough below is a Hungarian recipe page's, with every quantity; the frying temperature and time are not given anywhere we read, so the dough is complete and the fry is the cook's eye.
As tradition built it
Makes 8. About 2 hours, an hour of it rising.
Ingredients
- 500g potatoes, boiled and riced
- 300g flour
- 30g fresh yeast
- 250ml water
- 1 tsp salt
- 500ml oil for frying
- to serve sour cream
- to taste garlic, crushed
Method
- Dissolve the yeast in the warm water.
- Mix the riced potatoes, flour, salt and the yeast water to a soft dough and knead it smooth.
- Cover and let it rise about an hour, until doubled.
- Divide into eight, flatten each with oiled hands into a thin round.
- Fry in the hot oil, deep, until puffed and gold on both sides. Rub with garlic, spread with sour cream, salt.
What a modern chef changes
The oven's mouth, then the fryer
Rung 5
Method
- Bake the rounds 3 minutes on a stone at 280 degrees first, which is the bread oven's mouth, then fry them 40 seconds a side at 190; the inside is bread and the outside is lángos.
- Add 20 grams of lard to the dough for the Balaton stand's richness.
- Rest the shaped rounds 15 minutes before frying so they puff evenly.
- Serve with tejföl at 20 per cent fat and not a lighter cream, and grated cheese if you must.